This invention relates to a continuous self-wiping, mixing system, wherein materials are charged to the mixer at one end, and continuously discharged at the other. Moreover, the invention relates to mixers which are capable of uniformly mixing critical materials such as high energy fuels which are potentially explosive.
Mixers, of the character to which this invention relates, employ twin shafts, rotating in the same direction and at the same speed, which have radially interengaging paddles configured to wipe both the opposing paddle surfaces and the mixing barrel surfaces. The present assignee's Loomans U.S. Pat. No. 3,195,868 describes a mixer of this general character as does Erdmenger U.S. Pat. No. 2,670,188.
One embodiment disclosed in the aforementioned Loomans et al patent, relates to a mixing paddle member made up of a pair of circumferentially offset paddle sections which have wings which intermesh with like wings provided on a radially opposite paddle member. However, the wings are not self-wiping in the sense that the radially inner surfaces of the wings on one paddle member generate the radially inner surfaces of the wings on the other paddle member, and self-wiping between these surfaces can occur.